Pros And Cons Of Different Social Media Platforms For Marketing
You will also need to determine which social media sites you will be using. In essence, it depends on your target audience. Different audiences and demographics use social media in different ways, and therefore, marketing strategies will be different.
Rather than overwhelming yourself with trying to create unique content for each social media site, you should elect to base your platform on a few of them. It may be worth creating profiles on them all, filling them out consistently and in line with your brand, but you do not have to create unique content for all of them—at least right away. It is far is better to focus your attention than to overwhelm yourself and have subpar content. Again, you need to be aiming for quality over quantity.
It is important to remember that something that characterizes the success of content going “viral” is when it gets re-shared across different platforms. We have all seen viral tweets screenshot and shared on Instagram or Faccourse. While it does not happen to everyone, the cross-posting success of an idea is still something that you can consider.
Demographics
First, before deciding which social media platforms use will use; you need to determine which platforms your audience uses. Different platforms have higher usage and different effectiveness with different target audiences. So, naturally, you want to take your media strategy to the platforms that will maximize your engagement and impact on your audience.
Remember to base your platform use on your audience, not the other way around.
Choose the social media sites that best reflect the content you will be creating, but more importantly, best reflects the places where your audience would be. Your audience should dictate your content type, not the other way around. You cannot force people to engage with something that they do not like; because they will not: they will unfollow or simply ignore you.
Profiles
Not specific to any one platform, it is important to have a well-curated profile. Your profile should make it clear who you are.
Visually, and aesthetically, your profiles encapsulate your brand and are of the highest possible caliber—it will likely be the first impression that your audience has of you, so it needs to be a good one. Usernames should be appropriate and catchy, bios should be clear and simple, and profile pictures should be eye-catching. All of this should be tailored to your audience.
Across platforms, as well, your visual branding should be consistent.
Instagram is a popular photo and video sharing site. To begin, you need to make sure that you are on a business profile: this will give you access to all the business and insight tools. It gives you a contact button and the ability to create ads from your posts.
Popular kinds of posts include product teasers, product posts, behind the scenes shots, reposts from followers or employees, educational content, influencer posts, and typography, just to name a few!
Instagram will also allow you to create sponsored ads, too. These show up on the feeds of people who are not following you but meet the demographic requirements of your audience.
Instagram stories are also incredibly useful. Posting stories is a beneficial way to remind your audiences that you exist, without curating a new post for your feed. Additionally, stories can be a great way to share your followers’ content about you or any features that you have.
While people like to follow their favorite brands, more importantly, perhaps, people want to follow people they care about. Having a personal brand is very important on Instagram, and you want to be perceived as a person with a business, not just a business.
Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, for many people, in fact, Facebook is the internet. Setting up a Facebook business page (even if Facebook will not be your primary social media avenue) is a good way to create a hub for your business. Instagram posts can be easily shared, but other content may have to be reformatted. Make sure you fill out the profile information to include links to your other social media, as well as your contact information. Naturally, you need on-brand titles, profile pictures, and header images.
Depending on your kind of business, you could always create a Faccourse group to interact with your audience and create a community hub. While this will not be an effective strategy for everyone, if you are branding yourself as yourself and offering some kind of service that is very persona-heavy, this is a creative way to break down barriers and build a connection and community with your audience.
Many popular posts on Facebook are links to content posted elsewhere. For example, if you have a blog or other website, posting links to your Facebook page is a great way to drive traffic.
Videos are another popular form of content on Facebook. As well as graphics and other photos. Update your content, especially ad content, frequently! Audiences get bored with seeing the same things over and over, so you need to be able to keep it fresh.
Twitter is another major social media website; however, it is characterized by its use of short-form content. There is a character limit on Twitter, meaning that tweets posted can only be 280 characters long.
Once again, you need to create your profile in line with your branding. Make it recognizable as you. Your audience needs to be able to instantly recognize it as you—being recognizable is a key part of growing your business. Having cohesive profile pictures, usernames, bios, and headers is a fantastic way to aid with this.
You should make sure that your content is sharable; creating exciting, new content that is unique to you and is something that people will want to share. To gain exposure, use unique hashtags, as well as interacting with your audience. Commenting and retweeting your followers, or goal followers will make them more likely to do the same for you. As well as making sure that you jump on trends and use trending, yet appropriate hashtags to grow your audience.
Go through your mentions, and indirect mentions and like, retweet, and comment on tweets that are about you! Additionally, make your direct messages open and monitor them regularly. Keyword sharing and hashtags are prime ways to increase the views of your tweets.
Even if you are not using LinkedIn as a part of your business to gain customers, you should, at the very least, set up an individual profile (and, then perhaps, one for your brand, depending on whether it will be appropriate). But, to use LinkedIn as a marketing tool, make sure that you find your audience on there. At the very least, you can probably use LinkedIn to make broader industry connections, if not to reach an audience.
Company pages are a great feature of LinkedIn. And you can share unique content or cross-share content from other platforms. Use hashtags, as well as keywords to ensure that you stand out.
Build connections with other professionals, as well as find ways to build exposure. Other professionals on LinkedIn may be looking for collaborations; so updating your profile with your achievements, as well as any professional features you have is a great way to show off your business—to other people who may be able to elevate it.
Connect with as many people as possible in order to expand your reach. LinkedIn has effective search and recommendation tools that will allow you to find new people to connect with who are in a similar industry to you.
Posting content to LinkedIn is a great way to set yourself up as a leader in the industry. You can use it to share your knowledge and present yourself as an authority in your field.
Pinterest is an incredibly popular social media platform around the world, and people use it for inspiration. It is a very visual medium, so your content will need to be of a high quality to stand out. Pinterest is very popular for DIY ideas, recipes, clothing, and other design posts. It is aesthetically orientated, so your branding will need to be consistent and visually lovely.
Remaining on-brand is important with Pinterest—as it is so dependent on visual elements you need to ensure that your branding and graphic design are consistent so that your audience immediately recognizes your content as yours.
Good quality pins are usually vertical oriented, include text and tasteful branding. They often link to a blog or other post for the remainder of the content—so it is good to analyze your click-through rate. Make sure you include descriptions and detail. Pinning regularly is essential on Pinterest, but you can schedule them, so you do not have to do it every day. Additionally, make sure you plan for seasons—people on Pinterest often search for inspiration in advance.
YouTube
YouTube the biggest video sharing social media platform. There are a lot of videos on YouTube, but that should not mean that you should not try to gain the attention of your audience, there.
If your content features you, you will need to have a distinct and likable personality. Editing is something that can make or break your YouTube channel, so make sure that your videos and unique and well-edited. Have captions on your videos and descriptions on the upload.
Do not forget to utilize cards, end screens, bumper ads, and watermarks. Create content that is unique and of a quality that viewers cannot resist the urge to “like, comment, and subscribe!”
Snapchat
Snapchat is a social media platform that, used mostly by younger people privately, has a huge portion of it dedicated to advertising. In order to stand out from the bright and playful content on Snapchat, you will need to be unique and fun.
You can set up ads and build filters in order to reach new users. Share your Snapcode on other social media platforms for your audience to add you.
TikTok
TikTok is a new social media platform, mostly used by younger people. It features videos that are shorter than one minute and tend to be attention grabbing. Despite primarily being shot on mobile phones, TikTok’s are characterized by high production value in areas such as; transactions between shots, typography, and their sound effects.
Popular kinds of TikTok content include: undertaking challenges or popular variations (check the discover page for trending hashtags), dances, reenactments of scenes using audio tracks, art, tutorials, daily life videos and so many more! Trends change quickly, but if your target audience uses TikTok’s, keeping up with them can be a great way to reach your audience.